be safe, all right?
by laptopheroine
Summary: Post-Season 1 AU. Clarice and John are unsure of where their relationship stands, and after losing its home and a third of its people, the Underground isn't doing much better. Putting their relationship on hold, John throws himself into his work. But after Clarice is taken by Sentinel Services on a routine op, he'll do anything to get her back. Anything. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

It's hours before Clarice and John finally get a moment alone. They have to rally the troops, begin planning to rebuild HQ and find people to pick up the slack for those who left. They need someone intelligent and eagle-eyed to replace Sage's quick mind, someone who can help transport people and goods discreetly in place of Fade.

As for Lorna and Andy, Clarice isn't sure if there's anyone that can take their places.

She sits on a pallet away from the others, head falling into her hands, and sighs.

"Hey." John joins her, offering a granola bar. She realises she hasn't eaten since this morning, when they left for the summit. She gratefully takes it and notices for the first time the twinge of pain in her right arm. John notices it too. "Take off your jacket," he says.

She does, revealing a thin laceration from wrist to elbow. Blood smudges around it, half-clotted. It's not a pretty sight but it's not deep. It'll heal quickly. "Where did I get this?" she asks, almost to herself.

His eyes go unfocused for a second before meeting hers. "Lorna. Her barbed wire cut you when you tried to make a portal."

"Huh. Mustn't have noticed, what with all the shooting down planes and stuff."

"I'll go get Caitlin. She had the good sense to bring half the medical supplies when they got out."

"John, wait." Clarice tugs him back down to the pallet. "We need to talk. About. . . us."

"Yeah, we do. I- I'm not so sure there should be an us."

"What?"

He sighs. "Clarice, we just lost everything. Our home, our plan, a third of our key people including Lorna. Don't get me wrong, I want this with you." _Good lord, do I want it_, John thinks. "But times were different when we kissed. Our lives changed in just a few hours. I- I just don't think it's the right time." He sighs, runs a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."

She avoids his gaze. "No, I get it. Want doesn't factor into the equation. I'm sorry I kissed you and made it so much more complicated." She stands up. "Don't worry about Caitlin, I'll go see her myself."

So she leaves him sitting on the pallet, feeling empty and hurt and confused because he was the one who chose to end it - why does it feel so wrong?

* * *

It doesn't take long for things between them to get back to normal, or as normal as they can be. So what if she lingers a little longer when training with him than with everyone else? That's fine, right? So what if he's a little more protective of her when they're out in the field?

Marcos knows something's changed, but he doesn't say anything. He and John throw themselves into rebuilding the Underground. They find an abandoned gym to live in before they find someone to rebuild the old HQ. It's weaker, colder and there's pretty much zero privacy for the leaders to talk, but it'll do. Norah, with the help of Reed and a couple of other adults, turns out to be a great strategist. It helps that she can see flickers of the future when a choice is made. For example, if they are tossing up between stealing supplies and asking from the other cells, she determines that stealing is the better option after seeing Clarice use her portals to dash in and out without making a scene. Clarice herself increasingly gains strength in her portaling, even managing to go somewhere simply by looking at a picture of it, making her a more than reliable replacement for Fade.

If John wasn't too busy leading the Underground to pay attention, he'd think that she was pushing her limits to distract herself.

It's four weeks since everything went to hell, and the rebuilding is going slowly but surely. John almost regrets what he said to Clarice those weeks ago. He thinks sometimes that maybe he should've asked Norah what would've happened if he didn't. But then something happens and he rushes to put out another fire and thinks that it's for the best. On the day Andy Strucker and Sage return with their tails between their legs it's a literal fire he has to put out.

Until he realises none of it means anything.

"Come on, let's go!" Clarice shouts, ushering refugees onto the truck. She's about to make her biggest jump yet, across the state so the refugees, mostly families with children and people that can't help the Underground, can continue on their way to Mexico. Norah is sick today, unable to Search to see how safe it is, but Clarice has sworn she can do it. John watches her from a few metres away, unable to help the small smile on his face. She's a leader now, so much stronger than she was when he first met her.

Then again, she did throw a stapler at him, so she might've been that strong all along.

She turns around and catches his gaze, smiles. He knows the jig is up and walks towards her. "You ready to be amazed?" she asks cockily as she closes the door of the truck.

"Always." John puts his hand on her arm. "Be safe, all right?"

"I'll try not to get kidnapped again."  
"Good."

"I gotta go." Without another word, he watches as she creates a portal bigger than herself for the truck to drive into and disappears with it.

He waits for her to return for the rest of the day.

Logically, he knows that this will take a while. It's not safe to portal directly to the other cell, so they'll drive there from twenty miles out, where she'll likely spend a couple of hours regaining her strength. They'll drive back to the road and she'll portal them to HQ. If she got them back fast he'd worry she was on the enhancement serum.

But it's been almost eight hours. It shouldn't take this long.

John doesn't sleep.

When he wakes from a doze at dawn, he sees people running into the gym and a circle forming around them. He gets up and pushes his way through the crowd. It's the three volunteers who took the truck with Clarice yesterday.

"Where is she," he demands quietly.

"We were ambushed on our way back. She distracted them while we ran away. We heard them set a spider on her as we left." The man removes his cap in respect. "I'm sorry."

No.

_No._

Clarice has _not_ been taken by Sentinel Services again.

She hasn't.

She can't have been.

John falls to the floor, not feeling it dent under the force of his knees or noticing Marcos come in front of him, saying unintelligible things.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello! Apologies, but this chapter is very short. The rest of the story is in its final stages and it just felt right to end this chapter where it ends. Reviews appreciated!

John works for three days straight until Marcos tells him to stop. He sits him down in a slightly more private corner of the gym and asks him to tell him what the hell is going on.

"I didn't- I didn't tell her."  
"Tell her what, John?"  
"I- I said that it wasn't the right time but it's never really the right time, is it? Dammit, Marcos, I _love_ her and I didn't tell her while I had the chance."

"Listen to me, man, you are going to get that chance. We are going to exhaust every option until we've rescued her, okay? We're going to get our girl back."  
John realises that it's not just him that's desperate to find Clarice. He remembers the way he found her and Marcos one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, just sitting on the ground, backs pressed against the wall and legs touching slightly, not saying anything. Just being there for each other.

He believes what his best friend says.

Two weeks later, after they have realised that there's no other way, John and Marcos get in a car and drive to the Hellfire Club's HQ.

Marcos knocks on the door. Lorna opens it. Her eyes go wide with shock. "Marcos, John, what are you- what are you doing here?"

"This isn't a social visit, Lorna," Marcos says, his voice rough. He looks at the ground and back to her face, passing her rounded stomach. "Clarice has been taken. We need your help to get her back."

"Absolutely. Come in and we'll talk."

The Frost sisters are hacked off that Lorna's decided to help Marcos and John without consulting them, but they agree. Lorna's too powerful an ally to piss off. A plan is made and the next day they are on their way to the latest top-secret Sentinel Services facility.

John rides with Lorna. The silence is deafening before she decides to fill it.

"So, you really care about Clarice, huh?"

"She's part of my team. And you don't. Abandon. Your team." His words are razor-sharp.

"It's more than that, isn't it?"

"Stop. Just stop." John looks at her. "You don't get to ditch us and then ask about my love life."

"I genuinely do care-"

"No, you don't. You care about what you can get from me, which won't be anything but what I owe you for saving Clarice."

"You've got it all wrong, John. I'm trying to help. I'm trying to use the Hellfire Club to our advantage."

"Yeah, by killing people to end this war."

"No, by using their resources and information to stop the killing before it happens. Thanks to Aurora, I know what the Frosts intend to do and I know that to stop them I have to pretend to work alongside them."

"What do you mean, thanks to Aurora?"

"I mean, my daughter's already got her mutant powers and she's telepathic. She can read minds, which means for the moment that I can too. She can protect me from their telepathy, too."  
"I'm assuming they don't know."

"No, and I want to keep it that way." She sighs. "I'm sorry I abandoned all of you. I'm trying to fix it."

"I hope so."

* * *

It happens so quickly when they get there. All guards and staff in the building are hypnotised into a mental fog by the Frosts. Lorna slams every door open, using Aurora to determine that every mutant there is beyond saving except one.

John is alone in the hallway as he runs to cell 409, yanking the door off its hinges.

She lies on a cold concrete floor in nothing but a jumpsuit. Her hair, matted and bedraggled, covers her face as she pretends to be asleep. John knows she's afraid but only semi-conscious. He can feel her broken ribs and collarbone, the electric burn of the shock collar around her neck. She is chained to the wall by a shackle on her foot.

"Clarice?" he says quietly.

She looks up. "John?" she murmurs in the tiniest voice. And all of a sudden he can't stop himself from falling to his knees in front of her. She touches a trembling hand to his cheek. "You're real?"

"Yeah, I'm real," he says, smiling weakly. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"

He breaks the shackle off her ankle and lifts her into his arms. She's only been here two and a half weeks, how is she so much lighter? The world is a blur as he runs to the truck and she falls unconscious.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A/N: Hello! I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for the lovely reviews! It was so nice to hear that you guys like my writing; it's a real confidence booster! I only wish you guys had used your pseudonyms so I could send you messages to thank you in person :)

This will be the final chapter of this story. I will, however, be posting some other The Gifted fanfic, all of it Clarice/John based. If you want me to write anything particular, let me know!

The first think she notices when she comes to is the quiet. In the cells, there was always someone crying, someone screaming, someone yelling at them to shut up. She fell asleep each night to the sounds of her neighbor banging his head on the wall. But she doesn't hear any of that. She hears sheets rustling, and her own breathing, and birds outside. Her hand feels warm. Upon opening her eyes, she realises it's because it's being held in John's. He waits patiently while she looks around the room - the same one she got ready with Lorna in, that day the world exploded - before she settles on the one thing she really wants to see.

"Hey," he says.

"Hi."

A tear falls down her cheek as John squeezes her hand. "You really suck at not getting kidnapped."

And then she's sobbing in relief, all of the emotions catching up to her, and John moves from the chair to the bed and gathers her into his arms, kisses her head and it feels so _right_, so wonderfully, perfectly _right_ that she almost can't take it.

"It's okay, you're safe, I've got you," he whispers.

He lets her shaky breath do all the talking.

* * *

She falls back to sleep for an hour or so, and when she wakes John is still there, holding a bowl of plain crackers and a glass of water. She guzzles the water and nibbles at the crackers until he coughs. "We need to talk," he says.

"Absolutely. What about?"

"Us."

"I thought you didn't think there should be an us."

"I didn't." His voice breaks. "And then you got taken for the third time in two years and I fell apart. I spent the time I wasn't looking for you thinking that we'd missed our window. That I might never get the chance to hold you and kiss you and tell you that I love you."

"That you what?"

He takes a deep breath. "That I love you."

Despite her injuries Clarice lunges forward and is caught with John in a kiss, a life-affirming, everything-I-never-said kiss. When they pull away she smiles. "I love you, too."

* * *

John is waiting for Clarice to get out of the bath when she calls out for help.

He enters, and she is sitting in the bath with her back to him. "I can't wash my hair," she says in a weak voice, filled with frustration.

Ah.

She has two cracked ribs and a broken collarbone. She can't lift her arms far enough.

Wordlessly, John washes and brushes her hair. When she's done, he leaves the bathroom and returns with a black blouse, something she can put on herself, and a sling for her arm so she doesn't move her collarbone.

When she emerges from the bathroom a couple of minutes later and hugs him, neither one says anything.

They go downstairs, where Marcos, Lorna and the Frosts stand around arguing. Silence falls when they see the pair walking downstairs.

"Clarice, thank God you're alright," Marcos says and she smiles as he hugs her gently. "You are all right, right?"

"Mostly," she chuckles. "I'll get there."

"Well," Esme says.

"Now you've got your friend back," Phoebe says.

"We believe you owe us a favour," Sophie says.

Clarice looks at John with horrified eyes. "You never said you owed them a favour. Why would you do this if you owed them a favour?"

"I would've worked with Trask himself if it meant getting you back."

"But you shouldn't have!"

"Well, he did," Phoebe snaps.

"And now you have to pay the price," Esme adds.

"No," Lorna says.

All eyes fall on her.

"Excuse us?" Sophie says.

"No favour."

"I believe that defeats the purpose of a deal."

"I don't care. Clarice is my friend and we helped rescue her because it was the right thing to do. Not so we could get something out of it. John, Marcos and Clarice are going to go back to the Underground free and clear and we are going to be happy that she is safe and her powers aren't in the hands of Trask Industries. You got that?"

"Thank you, Lorna," John says, unable to convey his gratitude through his words.

"We won't forget this," Marcos adds.

"Neither will we," the Frosts promise.

* * *

Clarice falls asleep again in the van, leaning on John's shoulder while Marcos drives.

"So," he says, "you two. . .?"

"Yeah. You were right." John runs his hand through her hair. "I really- thank you, Marcos. For helping to get her back."

"Hey, she's my friend, too. But you're welcome."

"When Lorna comes back to us, remind me to thank her every day for what she did."

Marcos chuckles. "Yeah."

They drive in comfortable silence, occasionally talking, for four hours until they reach HQ. Clarice wakes a few minutes before they get there and John loves the way her face lights up upon seeing it. He gets out of the van and she holds onto his arm as they walk inside.

They are met with a flurry of activity as usual. Sage is giving orders and people are following them. Lauren is helping Caitlin teach a class of children between the ages of five and fifteen, while Andy plays basketball with a few of the others.

Clarice is hit with an overwhelming sense of home.

Someone shouts her name and Caitlin looks up and all of a sudden she's running towards Clarice and wrapping her in her arms. "Are you okay? What happened? Oh, I'm so glad you're safe."

Clarice tries not to cry, fails miserably, and falls into Caitlin's motherly embrace.

She pulls away and is brought into another, slightly less fierce hug by Lauren. Reed pats her shoulder. When Lauren lets go of her she sees Sage, who nods at her and smiles, and Andy comes forward to give her a quick side hug. Norah dashes up to her and gives her a tight squeeze.

"It's good to have you home, Clarice," Reed says.

Clarice smiles and realises for the first time that this really is her home. This ragtag band of runaways, mutants fighting to change the system, is home. It doesn't matter where they're living or how they're surviving. It's the one place, the one group of people she will always come back to.

"All right, Clarice needs to get some rest," John says, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  
"There's a spare bed next to John's. I'll grab you a blanket," Sage says.

When they get to the corner John's been living in, Clarice flops onto the bed next to his with a satisfied sigh and John pulls the blanket up to her shoulders. He lies on his own bed and reaches out a hand to her, which she takes.

"Sorry about the lack of privacy," he says.

"Eh, no big deal."

"When this is all over," John leans closer to her, as if he's telling her a secret, "we are going to live in a house. A real house."  
"Mmm." Clarice closes her eyes, humming in agreement.

"With a porch and a swinging chair."

"And a big backyard for Zingo."

"And a fireplace in the living room."

"A bathroom with a _huuuuge_ bath."

"A real kitchen."

Clarice falls asleep to a beautiful dream of living in a house not unlike her foster home, standing on the porch with John's arms around her, watching Zingo run.


End file.
